Your tendons are responsible for attaching your muscles to your bones. They are inelastic and fibrous, and as you age, sustain injuries or have surgeries, your tendons can weaken, increasing your likelihood of certain sports and fitness-related injuries. The best way to avoid these types of injuries is to improve tendon strength as you exercise. Concentrating on certain types of fitness and using the right equipment can help improve tendon strength for a safer workout.
Step 1
Warm up before exercising every time. Working out without the benefit of warm muscles can reduce tendon compliance, resulting in painful tears and next-day soreness. Start your workout with light walking or running, and then stretching each large muscle group individually, from the thighs and glutes, to the chest, back and shoulders. Ensuring that your muscles are limber can help reduce your chances for injury.
Step 2
Perform exercise that limits your range of motion for stronger tendons, suggests BodyBuilding.com. By using a short range of motion, you help to isolate the muscles and then tendons to keep them strong. Consider using a power rack at your gym, and performing dead lifts and shoulder presses that only cause you to move the weight a few inches at a time. Or try wrist rolls with smaller weights and keep your movements small.
Step 3
Add weight training to your exercise routine, even if you don't typically need a lot of muscle to perform your sport. Lifting weights helps improve the flexibility and strength of your tendons, which could result in better performance on the track. Add at least three days of light weight lifting to your normal training routine to see a difference in tendon strength and therefore, your sport performance.
Step 4
Wear the right shoes and equipment when you exercise. The right gear stabilizes your muscles to help keep your tendons strong. Consider the challenges of working out wearing unsupportive footwear; you could roll your ankle or twist your knee because of the lack of support, resulting in a painful tendon tear. Ensure that you're wearing the right type of padding and footwear before you begin exercising or playing, warns The Stretching Institute.
Step 5
Allow your muscles and tendons time to repair after strenuous workout. That sore feeling you get the day after working out could actually be microscopic tears in the muscle and tendon tissue. If you exercise or place more stress on the area when you still feel sore, you could easily cause more damage. Alternate cardiovascular activity with weight training to give you body time to recover and your tendons time to strengthen between workouts.
Things You'll Need
- Free weights
- Power rack
- Training shoes
References
- BodyBuilding.com: Tendon and Ligament Training
- The Stretching Institute: Patellar Tendonitis Treatment - Jumper's Knee
- "Bone-building/Body-shaping Workout: Strength, Health, Beauty in Just 16 Minutes a Day!"; Joyce L. Vedral; 1998
